I think that we have gotten an infestation in our home from the small tree outside our house. It was infested a couple months ago with what looked like a black mite, but now have only a few of those black pepper mites.

After 8 years of suffering I finally found something that works, against black pepper mites. Its cheap and its available everywhere! No I am not connected to it money wise.

Windex! I think its the ammonia but I am not going to monkey with success and try just ammonia. They can be biting me and I can spray them and they are dead in 30 seconds. I have chemical sensitivities but it does not seem to bother me. Just don't spray it in your eyes, but don't panic if you do. I did. It hurts. But my tears washed it away in a few minutes. If you spray where you have been scratching a lot it can burn but not anywhere except your eyes where you have not been.

I had friends spray my entire house and I sprayed my cars and wow, what peace it is to sleep and not be nipped every few seconds all night long!

Don't bother with Kleengreen. It smells nice and the mites stop for a few seconds, then keep right on biting.

I had never heard of collembola or springtail, so I looked it up and found one abstract report by Laurie Barclay MD in Medscape.

The report mentions examining 20 patients, convinced that they were infested with a parasitic infection and who had skin scrapings performed against control subjects.

All 20 had the following findings in their skin scrapings: pollen, spores, hyphae, mycelium, algae and 18 had collembola. The controls were clear of all findings.

The conclusions derived were that the symptoms were probably due to allergic reactions to pollen, fungi and spores. The collembola were thought to be opportunistic - they do not need to be human parasites in order to be present on the skin. They are abundantly found in wastewater and contaminated environments with high humidity and abundant organic debris.

I also did a search and found that the features ascribed to Collembolans, which are particularly primitive insects, make no sense. primitive insects don't have larvae or pupae, or cocoons, or many of the things supposedly found. The finding mentioned above, where collembolans might be present because there are other things to scavenge, makes more sense.

The symptoms some people have described sound more like nematodes than arthropods.

Nature's perfect food: I forget the distributor offhand. It tastes like sh*t, but it works.MSM, you can get this at msm-msm.com -- if this link don't work, let me know and I will find it. It's a natural antibiotic. I mixed it with the perfect food, just to take one horrible tasting drink at one time.

You need to get a vacuum that uses bags, clean everyday if possible, and change bags daily. Beds: they nest in the beds and will keep biting you. Wrap and seal your mattress in plastic sheeting all the way around. Leave no holes, and don't get the textured porous plastic. Stay away from thick bedding-- use as thin blanets you can get away with, and change your sheets daily and wash them. Buy yourself a steam cleaner for your carpets. I always used ammonia in mine, but you really have to ventilate. I do suggest kleen-free-- one person said don't bother with it, but it worked well for me. You can put it in a soothing bath, spray your clothes with it, and put it in your steamer. Go to a shaklee distributor and buy some basic H. It draws out the bugs and both you and your son can use. Soak in it for 20 minutes nightly. With the kleenfree-- you can also put it in a spraybottle with water, and spray yourself and your son at night before you go to bed, and again before you dress in the morning. be sure and air dry if you do this. Get diatomaceous earth. this can be sprinkled onto your carpets, and you can also rub it into your skin like a powder. in fact, it looks like loose face powder. sprinkle it in your shoes as well. there are places online this can be ordered. if you find they bite your feet in your shoes and you have trouble getting them out of your shoes and you cant afford to keep replacing them. get saran wrap, plastic packing tape, extra socks and buy a cheap pair of shoes 1 size too big. put on 1 pair of socks, saran wrap your feet and tape, then cover with another pair of socks, then shoes. if u dont use that first pair of socks, your feet will sweat.

Sunlight! Bathe and swim as much as you can when summer comes. In the meantime, go to a tanning booth. Get some exfoliating skin lotion, put it on and go in for 8 minutes. You'll have a dandy sunburn, but they will fry and peel off with the skin.

diet: eliminate as many carbs as you can. For a while i ate almost no carbs and it helped greatly. stay away from sugar and refined products.

Other things: braggs apple cider vinegar with mother, mixed with sea salt. It burns, but is very good.

One thing to know about these things: if you see what I call a track, which looks like nothing more than a scratch, give that place special scare immediately, that means eggs are gonna hatch.

Other things I have done and still do, just not as much: Bleach baths with 1/2 cup bleach to a tub full of water, alternate this with the basic h. it will dry your skin out, but it works amazingly well. soak 20 minutes, 10 as the symptoms reduce. It will appear you are getting worse, but it actually brings them out, and as you keep doing it, symptoms will lessen. after the bath, shower off, and you can follow up with vinegar if you can stand too. follow up with a spray of kleenfree, and powder yourself down with the diatomaceous earth.

I moved southwest to the desert 9 mos ago, and I only have lingering annoying things, as the last bit of this likes to stick around. I have no furniture to speak of, what I do have is wrapped in plastic.

Oh yes!!! PLASTIC SHEETING!!! Throughly clean all upholstery with the steamer, including your car. Cover ALL in plastic sheeting, including your car seats.

laundry: AMMONIA!!!!!

Another thing that works, esp. with the tracks: freedom-pharmacy.com, you can order permethrin cream there, far cheaper than drug stores and w/o a prescription. Use this on your tracks, and for really bad places. Get a rough scrub brush, and use that in your baths instead of wash cloths.

Too all of you, my best-- I feel your pain. I am at the end of a long tough road, and I am hoping one more summer in the dry heat will finish these things off. I recommend joining the morgellons group on yahoo, a lot of good stuff can be found there. They speak highly of colloidal and sovereign silver, of which I have never tried.

I will respect the rules of this board, but there are a couple of things I wish to say. It puzzles me why the "M" word is a bannable offense, there are similarities in symptoms, but I won't mention it again. Megadoses of any vitamins are never a good idea, but unless you have had this yourself, then you would agree that desparate times call for desparate measures. People that go to doctors with this get no help at all. These types of things have cost people their health, some, their jobs and homes, and even worse yet, some their children, and their lives! As for ammonia, as with any cleaning agent, great care is always to be taken. And as for silver, yes, it does do funky things to the skin. I knew of Agyria, me, I have never used it. But take a look at one popular drug for skin conditions: Enbril. Side effects of that are blood disorders and lymphoma! So one can see that big pharmaceuticals, in many cases are more poisonous than stuff people can get to treat themselves. Of course, internet should never replace a doctor, but when a doctor can't or won't help, sometimes the net, and others who have gone through these experiences, is/are the only things that others have to turn to.

From what i remember, 2000mg of vitamin C is the maximum an average human can tolerate without any side effects. The effects of hypervitaminose arise once you exceed 2000mg/day, but they are mostly diarrhea and stomach aches. However, others have suggested quantities much much greater: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_c# ... on_intakesincluding Linus Pauling's recommendation of 18000mg a day, which is kinda freeky. If you do have a Vit C deficiency, go with 40-90mg a day. It is enough.

As Patrick said, scrutinize medical advice you receive over the internet as much as possible, especially if a. The person offering the advice does not cite medical sourcesb. He indicates places where you can buy the recommended drugs.

"As a biologist, I firmly believe that when you're dead, you're dead. Except for what you live behind in history. That's the only afterlife" - J. Craig Venter

Since my first post, I have found that a pyrethrin spray called Clear Air Purge III can get rid of black pepper mites if you fog the whole house and car with it. You can buy it on the net, or have a pest control company do it.

Concerning vitamin C, i take 2000 mgs and up, with no side effects. But I' have digestive problems that interfere with my absorption of nutrients.

I agree we should be careful of information on the internet. But many of us have had nothing but humoring from most doctors, expensive humoring that gets us no closer to a solution but does lighten our pocket books immensely. I have to help myself health wise in so many areas from sleep apnea, thyroid problems, adrenal problems, etc, and the black pepper mites. I had to self diagnose my Aspergers syndrome despite being in a psychiatrists office for antidepressants every three months for over 20 years. I had to pay six bucks on eBAY to purchase the respiratory technician's secret instructions on how to up the CPAP flow on my machine because apparently air is a dangerous drug that can only be increased if you go through a thousand dollar sleep study again. The doctor would not listen to the fact allergies at home were making my sleep apnea much worse than showed up at the hospital clean sleep clinic which I was not allergic to, so a new sleep study would not even have shown the problem. Two years of my doctor refusing to treat my adrenal problem along with my thyroid problem including my pointing out what it said about this under thyroid treatment in the mainstream AMA-approved, PDR, was completely ignored. I finally found out about http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com and Isocort which can be bought on the net, and helped myself. I can buy Armour thyroid from International antiaging systems for a lot more than I would pay at a pharmacy but I save a great deal of money by not buying a doctor his new Cadillac. As a teenager when I complained of being very exhausted all the time the doctor told me I just had "emotional problems" and the doctor could tell "just from looking that I was very healthy. I had scaly, peeling, skin, depression, exhaustion, thinning hair, dark circles under my eyes, big muscles, all symptoms of hormone problems but to him, I, "looked healthy." So did my mother! She looked EXACTLY like the classic text book picture of someone with severe hypothyroidism, even down to the dull, hang dog. no hope at all, expression on her face, but to our family doctor she "looked healthy. "Please pay the receptionist on the way out." My Mother went without treatment for her depression, hypothyroidism and OCD her entire life until near the end. The antidepressant Imiprimine was right there in the above mentioned PDR since 1957, the year I was born but our family doctor considered depression a character flaw that could be overcome with a few positive thinking pamphlets. After I was able to get her help, I got her on Zoloft and we were suddenly able to throw away 40 years of trash, spoiled, rotting food and garbage without her having a melt down. She also started smiling and wanting to go places and have fun. She even gave me a hug one day. She had only given me one other hug in my entire life!

Many internet sites will tell you antidepressants are a bad idea. That is a perfect example of being very careful what you read on the net. The natural treatments all help the antidepressants work better, but they don't replace them. I know I tried for decades to do it with diet and supplements alone due to bad advice from, (in that day and age, not then net), but my local health food store.

But doctors don't always give good advice either. And they sock you plenty in the pocketbook!

My hard learned experience is to, listen to everybody (with caution) when they say something will help, but be very very, VERY skeptical when anyone, doctor, internet, health food store or friend tells you something WON"T help and might harm you. Everyone things their way is the only useful way. But I have found using EVERYBODY'S advice and attacking a problem from ALL angles results in more success.

Windex must have such a weak solution of ammonia is does not hurt me. It might not hurt anyone else either, but the black pepper mites can't stand it. Unfortunately it is not a repellent, only a killer. You can spray it on them and they die but in a few minutes any from unsprayed areas will move back in to fill the empty niche. That's why I ended up using a pyrethrin fogger too.

hi can someone help me i have been treated for scabies from the dr.s i had treatments of perm 6of them and 2 iver pills and did everything i was suppose to do with clothes and linen and baging things and there is no furinture in my house cause i just moved i sleep on an arrow bed nothing seem to work someone told me about sublimed sulfur and vaseline i used it last night 10/13/08 from head to toei looked at my hands and theses little black things were coming out my skin i dont think its scabies but it freaking my out i had chest surgery aug 7th and 2weeks later there was celluitis infection can someone help me before i go insane i need something thats not gonna cost a lot to get rid os this please i spent too much for something i dont think i have thanks to the drs this is all over me i can feel it and its ruining my relationship thank god they dont have it but i need some relief cause i honestly just wanna curl up and die